Living Church of God suffers another setback in their advertising campaign that uses deception to get in the door of Christian radio stations.
Deceptive advertising is key to LCG in getting their feet in the door. The same goes for UCG. They do the exact same thing. They of course learned this from their religious Daddy, HWA. After getting caught so many times being deceptive he started Ambassador Foundation as another avenue of getting the message about "a strong hand from some place" across to the deceived world.
From Eixt and Support:
June 6, 2016
Thank you for alerting me to the Living Church of God, and their ad on Salem Christian radio in KY.
I called WFIA and talked to individual who said that the ad was for the "The Living Church." Interesting. Many of these offshoots of Herbert W. Armstrong will not not be upfront and give their complete name.
I informed this individual that their real name is "The Living Church of God."
He informed me that Salem Media in Irving, TX was responsible for airing advertisements. I called and was informed that they are pulling the add, and rightfully so. --[name withheld]
If you want to contact Salem Media for other ads by LCG and other COG groups then see here: Salem Media
30 comments:
Well, now-
That's "Good News"!
I've noticed at times that Flurry's program is on a broadcast channel here, but I doubt complaining would help, since the station also features other crappy preachers on it like Mike Murdock and David Jeremiah after the Key of David program.
Why would an ad agency that specializes in Christian advetising call itself Salem? That name evokes the Salem witch trials, or a menthol cigarette.
BB
Lying has become a big problem in the LCG ministry. Meredith is a big liar, and it looks like he favors other big liars. The fruits of the Spirit are almost nonexistent the closer you get to the top in LCG.
I don't know how many people I am speaking for when I write this, but I know I am not alone. Earlier this year I started banking my tithe, because it is obvious that LCG is no longer doing the work it used to do. LCG used to have the best Church of God TV program, but the program has gotten ugly and tacky. Maybe that's why Meredith has taken it off so many TV stations and now spends money on stupid videos like that Man-Pig thing. Jim Meredith loves those short videos, it was obvious when he visited my congregation, even though they are stupid little things and don't even preach the gospel. They're just vanity. Why should I give my tithes to vanity and lying? When the split comes, I'll have a nice bankroll set aside to help the preaching get going again.
Would this be the same as PROV 20:10 Different kinds of weights and different kinds of MEASURES, both are an Abomination to the LORD.
Shame on rod for trying to cheat, IF you have to lie the truth is not in you.
Oh well, what can you expect, corrupt from the top down. Shame, shame
What more can you expect from Rod and his thugs, who have been deceitfully interpreting and twisting scripture for their benefit. So why not deceitfully drop off cog.
Do they really think that everyone is stupid.
There is something wrong, when a church has to lie to get an add on the air.
So there must not be any truth in them!
Your reporter editorialized and said "Interesting. Many of these offshoots of Herbert W. Armstrong will not not be upfront and give their complete name."
She is mistaken. All contracts are in church's full name 'The Living Church of God'.
BB: Salem is also identified with Melchizedek, "King of Salem, which is, King of peace". (Heb. 7:2) The city of Salem is also thought to be the location of a later city, the city of Jeru-salem. (See Psalm 76:2.) I'm surprised you are not familiar with the frequent use of Salem in Christianity.
Nice try, but it wasn't a "she" this time, if that was your attempt to discredit what's being said here. If the person who sent this news to this site is the same person who sent it to me, it was a man.
I'm not certain that the contract is the interesting part. I'd want to see the actual contract before I made any assertions that people were misleading on contracts.
The interesting part, to me, was that Living set up an entirely different site for this endeavor that they placed on a mainstream Christian radio station, rather than directing people to their own site.
The site is called: http://www.thebiblesaysthat.com/ and currently features Armstrongist views on hell, Christmas, Easter and Heaven. The Sabbath and Prophecy are also prominently featured.
If you click on the "about us" link it does not mention The Living Church of God. "Tomorrow's World" is its only contact given. You must pursue several clicks through the "Tomorrow's World" site to find any information about the Living Church of God.
I assume this must be on the same track as UCG's Beyond Today, although I think UCG gets a little higher billing on their site.
If you are the true church, preaching the only true gospel, why worry? Why resort to this?
Martha wrote, "The site is called: http://www.thebiblesaysthat.com/ and currently features Armstrongist views on hell, Christmas, Easter and Heaven."
Uh, oh!
You know what's funny?
Armstrongists want to argue over the definition of "Armstrongist", and Armstrongists often use every trick and argument in the book to claim they're not really Armstrongists!
BTW, good job in noticing that the Living Church of God set up a separate website in order to get their program accepted.
Their minions may call it, "excellent marketing"
Others might rightly call it "deceptive marketing"
I'm not sure what you are all surprised at.
The entire non anglo saxon worldwide activities of the wcg were until the 1990's operated under the name of Ambassador College and in some very difficult countries only under the name of the foundation.
To operate as a church would have been illegal in most countries except the USA.
nck
"Deceptive marketing."
hahahahahahah.
As Col Jessep (a few good man) said about "Grave Danger".
"Is there another kind?"
nck
You're exactly right, Anonymous at 9:33. It's deceptive marketing.
Sure, sometimes my church will set up special sites for events or programs (although more often than not they're a link off the main site). But when they do, they specifically say "a ministry of XYZ Church." But my church has a good name in the community and is known for helping those in need. What's LCG's legacy? Why are you trying to disguise it?
And before the LCG apologist (anonymous June 7 at 5:38 p.m.) tries to make the case that we COG bloggers and many commenters on this site don't use our real names, it's not the same thing. We are not ashamed of who we are or what we believe; we have witnessed the anger and persecution perpetrated by LCG and others against those who disagree or have left. We don't go around trying to break up relationships between Rod Meredith or Gerald Flurry and their loved ones; they do.
We all know folks at LCG headquarters read this and other sites. Who else would be able to comment on what it says on LCG's contracts?
BREAKING NEWS JUST IN FROM THE SABBATARIAN WORLD
BREAKING: The largest baptism in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has just taken place. 97,344 baptized in Rwanda after two weeks of Evangelistic Meetings in May. This record number of baptisms occurred after church members were asked to each lead one person to Christ. Reports stated that prior to this baptism, 720,000 people had been baptised as SDA in Rwanda. This brings the number of SDA baptisms in their country to almost 820,000 in total to date.
nck
Yes, 4:48, I am familiar with the history you outlined, but perhaps some others will be edified by your entry.
My point is, if this were a game of Family Feud, and we got to the point at which "Survey says...." the top associations with Salem would be the Christian botch job that were the Salem witch trials, and the Salem cigarettes. In terms of streams consciousness, those are the things most likely to be evoked in the mind of the general public. In other words, the name "Salem" has been burned just like the name "Armstrong". There is negative public perception that overwhelms any possible positive perception. That is a condition of which most marketing professionals are usually painfully aware.
BB
1.33 PM nick, too bad that these 820,000 don't have the holy spirit. But it's a step in the right direction, just like the people that John the Baptist water baptized, without the holy spirit being given.
BB is right about the marketing perception.
However we are talking about a Nasdaq company.
They moved from California to Delaware. Guess they have good tax lawyers too.
nck
2:36, how do you know that none of the people baptized in Rwanda by SDA ministers have received the Holy Spirit? As ridiculous as it sounds, I actually do believe even today that some who were baptized by Armstrongite ministers have received the Holy Spirit. I mean it was not a universal thing, and was so random that it almost seemed to have happened by accident in the WCG, but in looking back, I believe I knew some of these people. They were very different from the majority of the members. I've also known some from mainstream Christian churches. Unique gifting and consistent Christlike fruits are the "tell". I also have some friends whom I've known all of my adult life who are SDA, and these discernable fruits have been present in their lives.
Look at it this way. Some believe that HWA had a double or triple portion, yet he was baptized by an outside of the supposed chain Baptist minister whose partial biography was featured right here on Banned very recently. It all has to do with the personal relationship an individual has with God, not necessarily the apparent mentor, or mentoring group. A person is not even necessarily required to be a minister to baptize others. The "gatekeeper" types who would seek to control or enslave you want you to believe that the Holy Spirit is only available through them, but this is totally untrue. God determines who gets gifted, based on His own criteria.
BB
nck wrote:
"Deceptive marketing."
hahahahahahah.
As Col Jessep (a few good man) said about "Grave Danger".
"Is there another kind?"
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Good one, nck! I remember a time many moons ago when I worked in retail marketing. There was an acquaintance I ran into intermittently during that period who, when he saw me, always asked if I was still writing fiction.
Oh my Martha,
"many moons ago".
I am picturing you in "Mad Men". Pink skirt, funny hair and very cool of course. LOL
2:36
I hold no opinions on shares regarding the Holy Spirit. (only Nasdaq)
Even in Armstrongite doctrine there was room for "there are some among you" speaking of "splinters".
When travelling through Africa I was amazed at the market share of SDA. It dawned on me that the sabbatarian brand excells exceptionally well in the agricultural regions of this world. (Midwest, Africa, Des Moines etc) Perhaps it has to do with the regularity of the seasons and symbols associated with an agricultural society.
Perhaps in 2050 a splinter of this brand will disassociate from the then 60 million church because of some deep questions regarding life, adapt to a "Go West Young man, it is ok to be wealthy and drink wine and fly Grumman" gospel and then we have a one million strong Armstrongite type of church all over again.
As Martha said. That could or perhaps should be fiction. But hey someone should write the script for our consumption choices. My point in posting was that these blogs are like trimmers focussing on the dead branches from our experience. I am just wondering if trimming provides light for the rest of the forrest.
It is not my position to have bad opinions on good people either adhering to hindu, muslim or sabbatarian creed. "I somehow always liked that phrase in the letters to the Churches "There are some among you."
nck
BB you could have a point about ministers not being gatekeepers as to who receives the holy spirit. It's like marriage, it is God who binds the couple together, not some man. However, I believe that time has run out for qualifying for the kingdom, since Christs return is near. It takes decades to build a mature mind, and this time period no longer exists. This limits God to calling older mature people or older mature Christians from other denominations, as has occasionally already occurred. A door has basically closed.
what are you rolling?
12:07, you do realize that this is Hebrew year 5776? The governing Armstrong theory was always 6,000 years for man, and 1,000 years for God. Also, the parable of the workmen indicates that those who didn't work for a full day received a full days' wages. And then there is "the first shall be last, and the last shall be first". Where is it written that the door is closed? That sounds like something that might occur to someone who was attempting to explain away the non-growth of the ACOGs, and the greying of the membership. Surely, there is a bigger picture than that. These Armstrong-centric explanations are just as dubious as the pronouncements of those who would call themselves Joshua or Zerubbabel.
BB
12.14 PM which post are you referring to? What statement do you disagree with, and what is your own point of view?
"..it is God who binds the couple together, not some man!"
Well, we don't know for sure that God started https://www.christianmingle.com/
But I do firmly believe that the Universe gave us the tools to do our binding.
DBP
BB the full days wage refers to eternal life, not to peoples eternal reward. In the parable of the talents, some who did better, were given more cities to rule. The 'last will be first' means that some who were called later in history, did better than some who were called earlier, ie, they obtained a better position in Gods kingdom. A simply explanation to explain certain observations, isn't invalid purely because of its simplicity. A 'bigger picture' may not be a better explanation. God is not above basic reality. It takes time to build character, and Christ is returning soon. Hence a greying, non-growing church membership. At any rate, the holy spirit communicated to me that Christ will return in my lifetime, and I am old. Meaning there is 20 years tops left.
Well, 1:35, let's see how that works out for you, then. I was once a codependent of some people who fervently believed that the Holy Spirit communicated things to them about their own roles (based on Armstrongist views) and supposedly even about my role. Those things turned out not to have been communicated by the Holy Spirit at all, just fantasy. There were many cases of this type of thinking in the old WCG circles, and it is still prevalent today. Even if I had been inclined or able to "prove" to these people people that these types of thoughts were not coming from Father God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, they would not have believed me. Only time has offered proofs or disproofs.
BB
At my former work place the kind of promise the Holy Spirit made to Anonymous at 1:35 was called a "rolling horizon contract." A person was hired for a year, or maybe two or three. If the job still needed to be filled at the end of that time, and if the employee's evaluations were good, the person could be rehired for another period.
Rod Meredith has been on 3-5 year rolling horizon contracts for about 50 years now. My father's finally expired for good when he did. Like BB, I expect Anon 1:35's will go the same way.
The thing is, RP, even if God did work in the manner anon suggests, his or her own spiritual experiences would be meaningless to the rest of us. Only our own personal experiences would have meaning. I'm quite certain that God is not in the business of validating HWA's false theories and prophecies. He very visibly passed on that in 1975.
Entirely right, BB. My own job evaluations for HWA were very low starting in 1959-60; my reasoning was that he seemed delusional. At the same time I could see how others would be fooled into rating him higher, because he was a charismatic speaker who gave every impression of being sincere.
After 1975, though, I was completely astonished at how few people considered his spectacular failure of prophecy to be a deal-breaker. Metaphorically speaking, they renewed his contract in spite of miserable job performance. Now, after all the evidence from this site and from Ambassador Reports, The Painful Truth, and blogs by Gavin Rumney, Martha, and Redfox, that the church he was running was a con game and that he himself was an incestuous hypocrite, I am so far beyond astonished that there is no adequate word to express my reaction.
I find interesting that some of the Armstrong splinter groups are also not honest, when it is trying to air on Christian radio/TV. Take Ronald L. Dart's "Born To Win" I have been told a number of times that the leadership of the Christian station, where Dart airs, thought he was an evangelical. How did Dart get to air his program on FaithRadio.US, when he does not agree with it's "Doctrinal Statement" All who air "MUST" be in agreement with Faith Radio's "Doctrinal Statement" Also interesting is that Salem Christian Networks, pulled Dart's "Born To Win" from it's stations, along with other Armstrong splinter groups programs, but now has Dart airing on their OnePlace.Com. Sadly, many Christian radio stations,(even though they have a good Doctrinal Statement) will air just about anyone, "as long as the check clears the bank"
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